Pay rises for directors, managers and professionals fall

Pay rises for company directors, managers and professional staff have fallen this year, according to research by salary survey specialists Celre, part of the XpertHR Group.

The National Management Salary Survey 2009 – of 221 organisations, covering 45,809 employees – found that average basic salaries increased by an average of 4.9% in the 12 months to September 2008, while basic salaries plus bonus increased by an average of 4.6%. However, this is a fall on last year’s basic salary increase of 5.4% and the average increase in basic salary plus bonus of 6.2%.

Directors gained the biggest rise in average basic salaries this year, with an increase of 5.6%. Junior professional staff (entry level roles) also recorded above-average increases at 5.2%.

Bonuses were received by 60.9% of the employees surveyed, including almost 80% of directors, whose bonuses amounted on average to 35.4% of basic salary.

More than half (53.6%) of professional-level staff also received bonuses, with an average value of 7.7% of basic salary. However, there has been a noticeable reduction in the incidence and value of bonus payments on last year. The incidence of payments fell from 62.5% to 60.9%, while the value dropped from £5,983 to £5,432. As a percentage of basic salary, the average value of payments fell from 15.6% in the 2008 survey to 13.7% for this survey.

The findings also showed that the gender pay gap still prevails, with women earning on average 73.6% of their male counterparts’ salaries. Function heads are the closest to pay parity, earning on average 98.9% of their male counterparts’ salaries.

The survey also collected information on staff turnover. It found that participating organisations had an average staff turnover of 12.4%.

Directors had the highest turnover levels at 15.7%, followed by senior function heads at 13.4%. High rates were also experienced at the other end of the career spectrum, with junior professional staff experiencing turnover rates of 13.2% on average, while trainee professional staff had turnover rates of 13.9%.